Bank Loan Portfolios and the Canadian Monetary Transmission Mechanism

Transcription

1 Bank Loan Portfolios and the Canadian Monetary Transmission Mechanism Wouter J. DEN HAAN, y Steven W. SUMNER, z Guy M. YAMASHIRO x May 29, 2008 Abstract Following a monetary tightening, bank loans to consumers decrease. This is true both for mortgage and non-mortgage loans, and it is true for a tightening by the Bank of Canada that is, and is not, a response to a tightening by the Federal Reserve System. In contrast, business loans typically increase following a monetary tightening. We argue that the "perverse" response of business loans cannot be explained by an increase in the demand for funds due to a reduction in real activity. The reason for this is that we nd no evidence that business loans increase during a non-monetary downturn, in which real activity falls and real interest rates do not increase. These results are consistent with a change in bank portfolio behavior in favor of business loans in response to an unexpected increase in interest rates. The authors would like to thank Francisco Covas and Nicolas Raymond for assistance with obtaining the Canadian data and Craig Burnside, Zhiwei Zhang and two anonymous referees for useful comments. y Department of Economics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and CEPR, UK. z Department of Economics, School of Business, University of San Diego, San Diego, USA. x Department of Economics, California State University, Long Beach, USA.

2 1 Introduction There is a large empirical literature documenting that monetary policy shocks a ect economic activity. 1 In particular, empirical studies estimated over di erent time periods and using data from di erent countries indicate that an unexpected monetary tightening is followed by a (delayed) reduction in real activity. 2 Understanding the transmission mechanism remains a challenge, however, and in particular, the importance of the banking system in accentuating the transmission to the real economy is still unclear. Proponents of a bank-lending channel hold that a monetary tightening should be followed by a decline in the supply of bank loans, which exacerbates the economic downturn. It is our position that examining the role of the banking system in the transmission mechanism requires understanding the portfolio behavior of banks. In particular, additional insights can be gained by looking at the behavior of bank loan components as opposed to looking at just total bank loans. In Den Haan, Sumner, and Yamashiro (2007), we nd support for this position using U.S. data. Our speci c ndings are as follows. First, the behavior of total loans is consistent with that of a bank-lending and/or interest-rate channel. That is, total loans decrease more during a downturn caused by a monetary tightening than during downturns of comparable magnitude that are not triggered by a monetary policy shock. Second, following a monetary tightening there is a strong shift out of real estate and consumer loans and into commercial and industrial (business) loans resulting in an increase in commercial and industrial loans. During s of comparable magnitude, however, we nd no such increases in commercial and industrial (C&I) loans, which suggests that the increase in C&I loans is not due to an increase in the demand for such loans because of the drop in real activity. Our ndings, therefore, support the existence of a bank-lending channel, but only in relation to consumer and real estate loans. In fact, the results suggest that the shift out of these types of loans following 1 See Bernanke and Gertler (1995) and Christiano, Eichenbaum, and Evans (1999) for detailed discussions on how economic variables respond following a monetary policy shock. See Duguay (1994) for a discussion on the monetary transmission mechanism in Canada. 2 Cecchetti (1999), for example, documents that output decreases in all of the eleven OECD countries considered.

3 a monetary tightening allows for an increase in the supply of commercial and industrial loans. That business loans may increase following a monetary tightening is also documented in Gertler and Gilchrist (1993). Moreover, Bernanke and Gertler (1995) argue that the "perverse response" can be explained by an increase in the demand for these loans. Our results indicate, however, that the observed increase is more likely the result of an increase in the supply. The idea that the supply of commercial and industrial loans increases following a monetary tightening is clearly a contentious nding. While the theoretical literature in support of the bank-lending channel typically focuses on the supply of loans to rms, 3 we nd no empirical evidence of the bank-lending channel operating through this type of loan. Our empirical results do, however, provide support for the recent upsurge in theoretical papers emphasizing the role of nancing imperfections in the consumer loan market in business cycle analysis. 4 The obvious question is whether our surprising ndings are speci c to the U.S., or whether they are found in other countries as well. In this paper, we seek to answer this question by investigating whether the portfolio behavior of Canadian banks following a monetary tightening is the same as that of U.S. banks. Using data for the Canadian economy is especially revealing because the Canadian economy and banking system di er in fundamental aspects from the U.S. economy and banking system. In particular, the Canadian economy is much more open than the U.S. economy, and the Canadian banking system is comprised of only a handful of large banks, whereas the U.S. system includes more than 7,000 banks including many smaller banks. Despite these di erences, we nd that the results for Canadian bank loans are remarkably similar to those found using U.S. data. This study di ers in the following two aspects from Den Haan, Sumner, and Yamashiro (2007) in which we use U.S. data. First, in our Canadian data set, real estate lending is broken down into loans to businesses (commercial real estate) and loans to consumers (residential real estate). This distinction is not made in the U.S. data. This is important 3 See, for example, Fisher (1999) and Repullo and Suarez (2000). 4 See, for example, Campbell and Hercowitz (2004) and Iacoviello (2005). 2

4 because it sheds light on whether the change in the banks loan portfolios is one mainly out of real estate (or long-term) loans into short-term loans, or whether it is a shift from loans to consumers to loans to businesses. Our results suggest it is the latter. The second di erence with Den Haan, Sumner, and Yamashiro (2007) is that we consider two types of s. The rst is a tightening by the Bank of Canada (BoC) that is not a response to a tightening by the Federal Reserve System (FED) and the second is a tightening by the Bank of Canada that is a response to a FED tightening The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 highlights the similarities and di erences in the nancial systems of the U.S. and Canada. Section 3 discusses the data used and the empirical methodology. section concludes. Section 4 presents the results and the last 2 U.S. and Canadian nancial systems While there are many similarities between the nancial systems in the United States and Canada there are also many di erences. It is, therefore, interesting to see whether the remarkable results found with U.S. data are present in Canadian data as well. Monetary policy in both countries focuses on the economic and nancial well-being of the country with a primary goal of maintaining price stability. Both countries currently target a shortterm interest rate representing the rate at which nancial institutions can borrow and lend funds with one another. Furthermore, to promote transparency in monetary policy, both countries have eight xed dates at which they make announcements regarding the target policy variable. 5 The main di erence between the countries in terms of monetary policy is that the Bank of Canada maintains an explicit operating target range for in ation of 1-3% per year based on total CPI (since 1991), whereas the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System does not. Low-frequency changes in the composition of banks loan portfolios are also similar in the two countries. Figure 1 plots the shares of the four loan series for Canada over 5 This began in Canada in 2001 and in the U.S. in

5 our sample from the fourth quarter of 1972 to the third quarter of It shows that consumer real estate loans have become relatively more important, growing from 19% in the rst ten years of the sample to just over 50% of total loans in the last ten years of the sample. In contrast, the share of business loans has decreased sharply from 54% in the rst ten years to 24% in the last ten years. Consumer loans have remained fairly constant. Real estate loans to rms are only a small part of the banks loan portfolio, but their share has grown substantially, from less than 1% to around 3%. The data for U.S. loan components display similar (but not identical) trends. As in Canada, commercial and industrial loans start out as the most important loan component but is overtaken by real estate loans. In the U.S. this happens in 1987, just a couple years before the same thing happened in Canada. 6 One di erence is that in the U.S. the fraction of consumer loans displays a gradual drop from 25% to 16% of total loans. Despite these similarities there are also some important di erences that could a ect the responses of the di erent loan components following a monetary tightening. The U.S. banking system consists of many small- and medium-sized commercial banks, whereas the Canadian banking system is dominated by a few large commercial banks. In particular, as of January 2008 there are over 7000 commercial banks operating in the U.S. and only 20 domestic banks in Canada. 7 Canadian banks compete, however, with other nancial companies such as life insurance companies and mutual fund companies that themselves face tough competition in their primary market. 8 In the U.S. these various nancial services are dominated by a few large nationwide companies. Moreover, Canadian banks have been less restricted, not only with respect to the setting of interest rates, 9 but they also had a wider business scope and the ability to branch nationwide throughout the sample. The larger number of smaller banks and the historical obstacles to nationwide 6 Based on H.8 data downloaded from the website of the Federal Reserve System. 7 From the website of the Canadian Banking Association. 8 Allen and Engert (2007) summarize di erences in performance of Canadian and U.S. banks and discuss the amount of competition in the Canadian banking market. 9 Canada did not have an interest rate ceiling on deposits, while in the U.S. interest rate ceilings on deposits and savings accounts (Regulation Q) were only abolished in the 1980s. 4

6 banking in the U.S. have fostered relationship lending. 10 Relationship lending may a ect the desire and ability of banks to protect their customers during a monetary tightening when their own source of funds are becoming scarcer and more expensive. We discuss two additional reasons why U.S. banks may be better capable of sheltering their business customers from the negative e ects of monetary tightening. The rst reason is related to the mortgage market. Courchane and Giles (2002), report that even though home ownerships rates are similar (67% in the U.S. and 64% in Canada in 2000), di erences in public policy objectives resulted in di erences in housing and mortgage markets. Canada s policies have focused more on direct schemes to acquire and retain housing, whereas in the U.S., the focus has been on ensuring a supply of funds for mortgage lending. As a result, until recently, the variety of mortgages o ered in the U.S. was greater than that being o ered in Canada. In general terms, Canada had mortgages with shorter maturities, lower loan-to-value ratios, and interest rates that were not tax deductible. 11 Long-term mortgages are not attractive when interest rates rise, for example, because they put current-pro t margins under pressure, which, in turn, makes it more di cult to have a su ciently high capital adequacy ratio. This means that banks with long-term mortgages, i.e. U.S. banks, may want to substitute out of mortgages, which would free up resources to lend to rms. The public policy objectives pursued in the U.S. resulted in a strong secondary market for mortgages. Freedman (1998) documents that securitization of mortgages started much earlier in the U.S. and is of much less importance in Canada. The presence of a strong secondary market for mortgages would make it easier for U.S. banks to unload mortgages. The second reason relates to composition of banks loan portfolios. Although the qualitative trends in the banks portfolio composition has been similar there are important di erences in the levels. In particular, Canadian (non-mortgage) business loans dropped from 57% of total loans in 1972Q4 to 19% in 2007Q3, whereas U.S. (non-mortgage) business loans dropped from 42% to 25%. Faced with stronger long-term shifts out of business loans it may be less important for Canadian banks to safeguard business loans when interest 10 See, for example, Berger and Udell (1995) and Petersen and Rajan (1994,1995). 11 See Courchane and Giles (2002). 5

7 rates increase. Above we provided three reasons why it could be more important and/or easier for U.S. banks not to reduce business loans during a monetary tightening. But there is one reason why business loans should fall by less in Canada. Because Canadian rms are more dependent on bank loans, a reduction in bank lending has the potential to be much more harmful. Freedman (1998) documents that the share of business credit raised through bonds is roughly half that raised through bank loans. In the U.S., the fraction of corporate bonds and commercial paper to bank loans and (bank and non-bank) mortgages was equal to 90% in But if it is harder for Canadian banks to get funds from other types of nancial institutions then demand factors may prevent bank loans from dropping in Canada following a monetary tightening. 3 Data and empirical methodology In this section, we discuss the data and the empirical methods used. In particular, we show how to estimate the behavior of variables during a (in Section 3.3) and during a (in Section 3.4). 3.1 Data sources All data used are from Statistics Canada. Because not all of the data is available on a monthly basis, we use quarterly data over a sample period, which begins with the fourth quarter of 1972 and extends through the third quarter of The four bank loan series are: non-mortgage consumer loans, residential mortgages (consumer mortgages), nonmortgage business loans, and non-residential mortgages (business mortgages). We focus attention only on loans held by domestic banks. As of January 2005, domestic banks held 94% of mortgages, 93% of non-mortgage loans, and 93% of total assets (OFSI website, author calculation). We augment this data with the Bank of Canada bank rate, taken to 12 Using data from Table L.101 of the Flow of Funds for non- nancial business. 6

8 be the indicator of the monetary authority, 13 the consumer price index, and gross domestic product. A more detailed description of the data is provided in the Appendix. 3.2 Behavior of the loan components In this section, we describe the time series behavior of the loan components. Each panel of Figure 2 plots detrended real GDP, the interest rate, and the indicated loan component. There are ve episodes in which the interest rate clearly reaches (local) peaks. Those are the seventies, early eighties, early nineties, mid nineties, and the beginning of the millennium. The gure documents that each episode (indicated in the graph with a vertical line) is followed by a period in which GDP is below its trend value, although after the interest rate hike of the mid nineties the cyclical component of GDP is only slightly negative. The di erent loan components behave di erently in the periods following these interest rate hikes. Panel A documents that the cyclical component of non-mortgage consumer loans like the cyclical component of GDP is negative for some time following an interest rate hike, although after the interest rate hike of the mid nineties only with some delay. As documented in Panel B, the behavior for consumer mortgages is similar. Again, there are ve periods of negative detrended values, each corresponding to an interest rate hike. The correlation between the cyclical component of GDP and non-mortgage consumer loans is equal to 0.71 and with consumer mortgages it is slightly less, equal to Results are very di erent for business loans. First, consider the behavior of nonmortgage business loans in Panel C. In order to associate the periods in which the detrended loan series are negative with interest rate hikes one would have to use long and 13 Following the explicit targeting of a short-term interest rate by central banks, the recent literature typically only considers an interest rate as the monetary policy indicator even though interest-rate targeting may not have been in place throughout the entire sample. The appropriate interest rate to use as the monetary policy instrument for Canada would be the call loan (or overnight) rate. We use the bank rate, however, because it is available for a longer period and its behavior follows the overnight rate closely when both are available. Racette and Raynauld (1992) and Racette, Raynauld, and Sigouin (1994) use the prime corporate paper rate as the relevant policy instrument. Reestimation of our system using the prime corporate rate as well as reestimation over the shorter sample using the call loan rate leads to very similar results. 7

9 variable delays. An easier way to describe the comovement of interest rates and nonmortgage business loans is the following. At the start of each of the ve interest rate hikes, non-mortgage business loans are at a trough (relative to its trend values), but then increase together with the interest rate and decline (possibly with some delay) when the interest rate declines. The behavior during the early eighties is especially remarkable in that non-mortgage business loans even follows the temporary loosening of monetary policy in the middle of The correlation of the detrended loan component and GDP is only Panel D plots the results for mortgage business loans. This loan component is only a small fraction of total bank lending but it grew rapidly over the sample period. Some of the rapid growth bursts that took place in the rst half of the sample are not taken out by the lter. Thus, one should be careful when interpreting these results. Nevertheless, some interesting lessons can be drawn. In particular, following the sharp monetary tightening of the eighties, real estate lending to rms sharply increased. It is possible that this sharp increase (which was not reversed in the un ltered data) is better modeled as a change in the trend. Whether the increase is due to a change in the trend or a change in the cyclical component, it is still remarkable that it occurred following a monetary tightening, a period after which at least according to the conventional view the supply of bank loans should decrease. The discussion in this section simply points at some comovements during particular episodes. Below, we show that this informal discussion is con rmed with the results obtained using the empirical methodology described in the remainder of this section. 3.3 Two types of s The standard procedure to study the impact of monetary policy on economic variables is to estimate a structural VAR using a limited set of variables. Consider the following 8

10 VAR: 14 Zt = B1Zt BqZt q + D0r ffr t + + D q r ffr t q + u t; (1) where Z 0 t = [X 0 1t ; r t; X 0 2t ], X0 1t is a (k 1 1) vector, with elements whose contemporaneous values are in the information set of the central bank, r t is the monetary policy variable (bank rate), X 0 2t is a (k 2 1) vector with elements whose contemporaneous values are not in the information set of the central bank, and u t is a (k 1) vector of residual terms with k = k k 2. r ffr t is the federal funds rate which is assumed to be una ected by Canadian variables. We further assume that all lagged values are in the information set of the central bank. In order to proceed, one has to assume that there is a relationship between the reduced-form error terms, u t, and the fundamental, or structural, shocks to the economy, " t. We assume that this relationship is given by: u t = A" t ; (2) where A is a (k k) matrix of coe cients and " t is a (k 1) vector of fundamental uncorrelated shocks, each with a unit standard deviation. Thus, E u t u 0 t = AA 0 : (3) When we replace E [u t u 0 t] by its sample analogue, we obtain k(k + 1)=2 conditions on the coe cients in A. Since A has k 2 elements, k(k 1)=2 additional restrictions are needed to estimate all elements of A. A standard procedure is to obtain the additional k(k 1)=2 restrictions by assuming that A is a lower-triangular matrix. Christiano, Eichenbaum, and Evans (1999), however, show that to determine the e ects of a monetary policy shock one can work with the less-restrictive assumption that A has the following block-triangular structure: 2 3 A 11 0 k1 1 0 k1 k 1 A = 6 A 4 21 A k2 7 5 ; (4) A 31 A 32 A To simplify the expressions we do not display constants, trend terms, and seasonal dummies that are included in the empirical implementation. 9

11 where A 11 is a (k 1 k 1 ), A 21 is a (1 k 1 ) matrix, A 31 is a (k 2 k 1 ), A 22 is a scalar, A 32 is a (k 2 1), A 33 is a (k 2 k 2 ), and 0 ij is a matrix with zero elements. Note that this structure is consistent with the assumption made above about the information set of the central bank. Our benchmark speci cation is based on the assumption that X 2t is empty and that all other elements are, thus, in X 1t. Intuitively, X 2t being empty means that the central bank responds to contemporaneous innovations in all of the variables of the system. 15 It also means that none of the variables can respond contemporaneously to monetary policy shocks. We impose the same restriction on changes in the federal funds rate. That is, all elements of the (k 1) vector D are assumed to be equal to zero except the element corresponding to the Canadian bank rate. In other words, we allow the Canadian central bank to respond contemporaneously to unexpected changes in the federal funds rate. This structure allows us to consider two di erent types of s. FED initiated. The rst type of is a monetary downturn that is initiated by the FED. We use the impulse response function of the federal funds rate from Den Haan, Sumner, and Yamashiro (2007), which is obtained by estimating a VAR with U.S. data, to pin down the size of the shock and the time path along which the federal funds rate returns back to normal. An increase in the federal funds rate leads to an increase in the Canadian bank rate in the same period, but a ects other Canadian variables only in the next period. Bank of Canada initiated. The second type of is initiated by the Bank of Canada. This is a response to the (k 1 + 1) th element of ". Since the equation of the Canadian bank rate includes both the contemporaneous and lagged values of the federal funds rate, this change in the Canadian bank rate is not a response to a FED change in the interest rate. 15 The results are similar under the alternative assumption that the monetary authority does not respond to contemporaneous innovations of the other variables in the system. 10

12 3.4 Non-s The impulse response functions for the s not only re ect the direct responses of the variables to an increase in the interest rate, but also the indirect responses to changes in the other variables and, in particular, to the decline in real activity. This makes it di cult to understand what is going on, especially since a decline in real activity could increase or decrease the demand for bank loans. 16 For example, an increase in a loan component during a could still be consistent with a credit crunch, if the decline in real activity strongly increases the demand for that loan component. Thus, without the credit crunch this loan component would have increased even more. To lter out this indirect e ect of real activity, we compare the behavior of loan components during a with their behavior during a of equal magnitude. While a is caused by a monetary tightening, a is caused by one or more output shocks. There are two schemes to construct s. In the rst scheme, the structural shock is simply the innovation to output from the reduced-form VAR. For our purposes, it is not that important to interpret the nature of this structural shock. The key feature, however, is that while this shock decreases real activity it does not lead to an increase in interest rates. 17 It, therefore, distinguishes itself from a monetary shock in a fundamental way. We mainly focus on a second scheme that is similar to the rst but ensures that the behavior of output during a is identical to that observed during a. This makes it convenient to quantitatively compare the responses during the two types of downturns. According to this second scheme, a nonmonetary downturn is caused by a sequence of output shocks such that output follows the exact same path as it does during a. As documented in the appendix, 16 On one hand, the reduction in real activity would reduce investment and, thus, the need for loans, while on the other hand the reduction in internal cash ow could increase the demand for loans. The latter would especially manifest itself if production cannot easily be scaled down so that a reduction in sales leads to an increase in inventories. 17 We nd that output shocks lead to reductions in the interest rate but they are quantitatively very small. 11

13 the responses of the loan components following a single output shock tell a story that is very similar to that implied by the loan components responses during a non-monetary downturn (following a sequence of output shocks). 18 With output declining during both downturns the key di erence between the two is the behavior of the interest rate. Thus, the di erence between the impulse response functions for the loan variables of the monetary and the can be interpreted as the e ect of the increase in the interest rate holding real activity constant. That is, by comparing the behavior of the loan variables during a with that observed during a, we lter out the changes in demand and supply that are caused by the reduction in output. Obviously, there are pitfalls to this comparison, but we think that they provide a useful set of contrasting empirical results. 3.5 Speci cation of the VARs and standard errors Each VAR includes one year of lagged variables, a constant, a linear trend, and quarterly dummies to adjust the data for seasonality. 19 The coe cients are estimated with ordinary least squares (OLS) and the signi cance levels are established using a Monte Carlo procedure with 5,000 replications in which data are generated by bootstrapping the estimated residuals. To avoid clutter we do not report con dence bands in the graphs but instead use open and solid squares to indicate that an estimate is signi cant at the 10% and 5% level, respectively Implementing these exercises requires us to make an additional assumption on A. In particular, we assume that the only shock that a ects real activity is this "output" shock. That is, the matrix A 11 also has a block-triangular structure. Note that the block-triangular structure imposed in Equation 4 already made the assumption that any structural shock, including the monetary shock, could have an e ect on the monetary policy variable, but that the monetary shock only had an immediate e ect on the monetary policy variable. 19 We include seasonal dummies because non-residential mortgages are not seasonally adjusted. 20 Signi cance levels are for one-sided tests. 12

14 4 Results FED initiated. In this section, we examine a monetary tightening that is induced by the FED. In particular, we consider the responses of Canadian variables (including the bank rate) when the federal funds rate increases and then follows the time path indicated by the estimated impulse response function of Den Haan, Sumner, and Yamashiro (2007). Panels A through C of Figure 3 plot the responses of the bank rate, the price level, and real GDP following this FED tightening. The bank rate closely follows the federal funds rate but increases by a smaller amount. The peak increase in the federal funds rate is equal to 81 basis points, whereas the peak response in the bank rate is equal to 61 basis points. It is typically assumed that at least part of the increase in the nominal rate is due to an increase in the real rate. Bhuiyan and Lucas (2007) document using Canadian data that this is indeed the case. In particular, they show that an increase in the overnight target rate by 22 basis points leads to an increase in the ex ante real rate (of a one-year bond) by 18 basis points and a decrease in the expected in ation rate by 5 basis points. Real GDP drops signi cantly for over a year reaching its maximum decline of 0.58% after approximately 2 years. The response of the price level indicates that our results su er from the price puzzle, but the puzzle is much smaller here than in other papers; the price level experiences a small (but signi cant) increase during the rst few years, after which it displays a more substantial (but insigni cant) decline below its original level. 21 Moreover, as documented below we do not face the price puzzle when we consider a tightening that is not initiated by the FED, and for alternative speci cations discussed in the appendix the price puzzle is even less apparent than it is in Figure Fung and Kasumovich (1998) resolve the price puzzle for several countries including Canada using long-run restrictions. Barth and Ramey (2001) and Gaiotti and Secchi (2004) argue, however, that an increase in the price level is not a puzzle, because 21 In contrast, Den Haan, Sumner, and Yamashiro (2007) nd using U.S. data a strong signi cant increase in the price level that is not followed by a substantial decline. 22 Fung and Gupta (1997) nd using Canadian data a strong signi cant increase in the price level when monetary tightenings are identi ed as negative innovations to a liquidity variable, but their price response is similar to ours when monetary shocks are identi ed as innovations to an interest rate. 13

15 increases in the interest rate could lead to an increase in the price level through a cost channel. Given that there are reasons why the price level should not fall following a monetary innovation, and since we only face a modest price puzzle, we would rather not search for that particular speci cation, which delivers the desired result for prices. Figures 3A and 3B also plot the behavior of the bank rate and the price level during a in which the changes in output are identical to those observed following a monetary tightening (Figure 3C), but are instead caused by a sequence of output shocks. The gure shows that interest rates decrease somewhat in response to the negative output shocks, but that the reduction is very small. Prices display a moderate drop during a. Panels D through G of Figure 3 plot the responses of the four loan components after a positive innovation in the federal funds rate. The key observation is that as is the case for the loan components of U.S. banks the components behave very di erently. Non-mortgage consumer loans and consumer mortgages display a gradual and persistent decline. The decline in these two loan components follow the drop in output but their declines last longer. The magnitudes are also larger. The maximum drop of non-mortgage consumer loans is equal to 1.78% and the maximum drop of consumer mortgages is equal to 2.23%, more than triple the fall of output. Results not shown indicate that consumer loans behave similarly to total loans. Both types of business loans behave di erently from consumer loans. Following a monetary tightening, both display sharp increases that are signi cant at the 10% level in the rst quarter and signi cant at the 5% level for several subsequent quarters. Nonmortgage business loans return to their original level roughly four years following the shock after which they display a moderate but signi cant decline. Business mortgages remain high for an even longer time period. Non- (corresponding to FED initiated downturn). To shed some light on the question of how the downturn in real activity, following the monetary contraction, a ects the loan components, we also analyze the responses of the loan components during a in which the path of output is exactly as it 14

16 is during the. Recall that interest rates barely move during such a downturn. Non-mortgage consumer loans decline in response to output shocks but the decline during the is roughly half that of the decline during a comparable. For consumer mortgages the di erence is even greater. Whereas consumer mortgages sharply decline during a monetary tightening, they are virtually at during a. How the is constructed is not important, since the same qualitative results are found when responses following a single output shock are considered. 23 The behavior of both types of consumer loans during a monetary, thus, ts the textbook story of a monetary tightening. That is, loans decrease and they decrease by more than what can be explained by the reduction in real activity. In contrast, the behavior of both types of business loans does not t the textbook story about the monetary transmission mechanism. Consider the behavior of non-mortgage loans to rms. Above we mentioned that this type of loan displays a sharp increase during a. During a, however, they display a signi cant decline although the decline is modest (roughly half the drop in output). Similarly, business mortgages, while increasing during a, are basically unchanged during a non-monetary downturn. Since a reduction in real activity could lead to either a decrease in the demand for loans (since investment decreases) or an increase (since internal nancing decreases), the observed reduction in business loans following the negative output shocks is not that surprising. But if a reduction in real activity leads to a reduction in loans during a, then why do loans to businesses increase during a monetary downturn? We return to this question in the last section. Bank of Canada initiated In this section, we consider an increase in the Bank of Canada bank rate that is not a response to an increase in the federal funds rate. The correlation between the bank and the federal funds rate is high, namely 88% for our quarterly data, but even when we allow the federal funds rate to 23 See the appendix. 15

17 a ect the bank rate contemporaneously, we nd substantial innovations to the bank rate. The results are given in Figure 4. Panel A documents that the monetary tightening that is initiated by the Bank of Canada corresponds to increases in the bank rate that are similar to those that are observed when the increases are in response to a FED tightening. The same is true for the drop in output. The response for the price level is somewhat di erent and the price puzzle now has clearly disappeared. The price level is basically at for roughly two years after which it displays a gradual and persistent decline, that is signi cant at the 5% level. We now turn to the responses of the loan components. Qualitatively the responses of the two types of consumer loans following a tightening initiated by the Bank of Canada are very similar to those observed when the downturn is initiated by the FED. Quantitatively, however, the drops are much smaller. This suggests that Canadian banks may be better able to shelter their portfolio of consumer loans when interest rates only increase in Canada and not the United States. Whether the interest rate increase is due to a tightening initiated by the FED or the Bank of Canada also does not matter for the qualitative results for business mortgages, although, it does matter for non-mortgages business loans. When the increase in the interest rate is due to a tightening initiated by the FED, non-mortgage business loans display a sharp and persistent increase. When the increase is initiated by the Bank of Canada, we nd a similar initial increase after which the impulse response function becomes negative but insigni cant. 24 The explanation for this result may be related to the one given to explain the smaller responses in consumer loans. In the last section, we argue that it is very well possible that the sharp reductions in consumer mortgages and other consumer loans that are observed when interest rates increase in both Canada and the U.S. occur because these loans are less attractive to banks when interest rates increase. This substitution out of consumer loans frees up resources that can be used to increase business loans. But if Canadian banks can obtain funding for their loans in the U.S. at lower rates, then consumer loans may not be as unattractive. Therefore, if consumer loans decrease 24 There are some signi cant values after ve years but these should probably not be taken seriously. 16

18 by less then there is less room for business loans to increase. An alternative explanation is that demand for business loans is lower during a initiated by the Bank of Canada, because Canadian rms would rather borrow from U.S. lenders than from Canadian lenders when the interest di erential between Canadian and U.S. rates increases. Non- (corresponding to BoC initiated downturn). Since the output decline following a tightening initiated by the Bank of Canada is very similar to the output decline following a FED tightening, it is also the case that the responses during the two s are very similar. But since quantitatively (and for non-mortgage business loans also qualitatively) the results are di erent during the two s it will be useful to do another comparison. Although the decline in consumer mortgages is milder when the increase in the interest rate is due to an independent tightening by the Bank of Canada, the response during s is at, which means that the behavior of these loans is still consistent with the textbook description of a monetary tightening. The smaller decline in non-mortgage consumer loans does change the interpretation since consumer loans do decrease during a. In fact, as documented in Panel D of Figure 4, the declines in non-mortgage consumer loans during a monetary and a non-monetary downturn are now quite similar. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that when interest rates increase in Canada but not in the U.S., the reduction in non-mortgage consumer loans is due to the drop in real activity and not to the increase in the interest rate. Business mortgages also increase during a initiated by the Bank of Canada. Since they do not increase during a, they clearly do not t the standard textbook story. Finally, we discuss non-mortgage business loans. The signi cant initial increase in non-mortgage business loans clearly cannot be explained by the decline in real activity. Interestingly, except for this initial decrease non-mortgage business loans closely follow the behavior of non-mortgage business loans during a nonmonetary downturn, which is exactly what we found for non-mortgage consumer loans. 17

19 To summarize, when interest rates increase in Canada but not in the U.S., the behavior of non-mortgage loans (both business and consumer loans) is very similar to that observed during downturns of equal magnitude caused by a series of output shocks instead of a monetary shock. For mortgage loans, it is less important whether the tightening is initiated by the FED and followed by the Bank of Canada or whether the tightening only occurs in Canada. Robustness Exercises. In the appendix, we show that the results are robust to several modi cations. In particular, we do the following. We calculate the impulse response functions using a standard VAR that does not distinguish between a tightening initiated by the Bank of Canada and a FED tightening. The results are basically an average of the ones reported here for the two types of s. We also show that the results are robust to adding the exchange rate, U.S. GDP, and business inventories to the VAR. When we add inventories we generate the using output and inventory shocks so that we match both the response of output and inventories observed during the. We also reestimate the VAR using only more recent data and nd similar responses for most variables. Finally, we document that the responses for the s (which are based on a sequence of output shocks) are qualitatively similar to the responses observed after a single output shock. We also tried alternative assumptions about the number of lags and trend speci cations and found that the results are robust Concluding comments The responses of Canadian loans to a monetary tightening initiated by the FED and followed by the bank of Canada are remarkably similar to those found for the U.S. economy. In particular, both types of consumer loans decrease during a and they decrease by much more than during a comparable. In 25 These results can be found through the link "robustness: di erent trend & lag structures" on 18

20 contrast, business loans increase following the increase in interest rates while we do not observe such an increase during a. The responses following a tightening initiated by the Bank of Canada, which leaves U.S. interest rates unchanged, are similar but there are also some di erences. The decline in real activity is almost identical across the two types of s. Although consumer loans decrease during both s, the decrease in non-mortgage consumer loans during a tightening initiated by the Bank of Canada can be fully explained by the reduction in real activity. Except for the initial rise, the same is true for nonmortgage business loans. For mortgages, however, the rise in Canadian interest rates clearly has an e ect that is not explained by the decline in real activity independent of which central bank initiates the tightening. Given that business loans do not increase following a series of negative output shocks, the increase in business loans following a monetary tightening is unlikely to be caused by the reduction of real activity. It is not impossible that an increase in interest rates leads to an increase in the demand for loans if the higher burden of interest payments can only be met by increased borrowing. But if rms are in such dire need of extra funds, the question arises as to why banks are willing to supply the extra funds. There are several reasons why banks may want to adjust their loan portfolio following a monetary tightening. One possibility is that the risk of loans to consumers increases by far more than the risk of loans to rms. This would shift the portfolio towards business loans, and if the portfolio shift is strong enough then the supply of business loans could even increase. Minetti (2007) develops a model in which banks a ect the risk of their rm loans with the amount they lend out. In such an environment banks may want to give priority to business lending because a reduction in the amount lent to a rm may increase the risk and lower expected returns. 26 Another possibility considered is a shift from longterm (i.e., real estate) loans towards short-term loans. The idea is that the increase in the short-term rate decreases the current-period pro t margin on long-term loans. If banks 26 But note that this motivation should only be present during a because we do not see during a. 19

21 worry about the book value of their equity position then such a reduction in bank pro ts may induce banks to move out of long-term loans into short-term loans. 27 With our U.S. data set we were unable to distinguish between real estate loans to consumers and rms. Using Canadian data, our empirical nding that both types of business loans (mortgages and non-mortgage loans) increase when interest rates increase in both Canada and the U.S., suggests that it is the type of borrower and not so much the type of loan that matters. That is, our results suggest that consumers are more likely than rms to be constrained during a. The conclusion that consumers and not businesses are credit constrained is consistent with the results of Safaei and Cameron (2003). 28 Although the theoretical literature on agency costs in nancing has typically focused on loans to rms, there are now several papers that build dynamic business cycle models in which frictions associated with lending to consumers play a crucial role. 29 Our empirical results document that especially following a monetary tightening consumers are more likely than rms to be constrained and, thus, make clear the importance of theoretical work that emphasizes frictions in consumer nance. Another aspect of our results that deserve more attention is the following. Our empirical work focuses on banks loan portfolios following a monetary tightening. We do not address what happens to other types of funding 30 and whether these changes in the 27 One such reason could be regulation such as the Basel accord. Den Haan, Sumner, and Yamashiro (2007) argue that even before the Basel accord was implemented there were reasons for banks to safeguard their equity position. 28 They nd in response to a monetary policy shock, a positive comovement between output and credit, both when credit to businesses and when credit to persons is used. In response to a positive "credit supply shock," however, output increases when bank credit to persons is used but output decreases when bank credit to businesses is used. The latter is consistent with the pattern we nd during a. Note that while we do not separately identify a credit supply shock which requires a complex set of restrictions it is possible that our monetary policy shock captures, in part, a credit supply shock like the one identi ed in Safaei and Cameron (2003). 29 See, for example, Campbell and Hercowitz (2004) and Iacoviello (2005). 30 It is possible that the increase in bank funding makes up for a decline in funding from other sources. This raises the question why banks are not ful lling this role during a while they are capable of doing it following a monetary tightening. 20

22 bank loan portfolios are important in magnifying or propagating the e ects of the monetary tightening. Whether, for example, the observed reduction in consumer mortgages is important in a ecting investment in real estate depends on alternative nancing possibilities. This is obviously a di cult question, but Iacoviello and Minetti (2007) make progress on this issue by investigating whether shocks to the ratio of non-bank mortgages to bank mortgages a ect house prices. Using data for Finland, Germany, Norway, and the U.K. they nd mixed results and they argue that the di erences can be explained by di erences in the mortgage markets such as the depth of the funding system, the presence of a diversi ed range of mortgage lenders, and the ability to share credit risk. A Appendix A.1 Data Sources All Canadian data series are from Statistics Canada, while U.S. data series are from the St. Louis FED FRED database. Bank rate (v122530). monthly observations. Quarterly series are constructed using the average of the Total Consumer Price Index (v735319). Quarterly series are constructed using the average of the monthly observations. (Non-mortgage) business loans (v122645). the average of the monthly observations. Quarterly series are constructed using Business mortgages (v122656). Quarterly series are constructed using the average of the monthly observations. (Non-mortgage) consumer loans (v122709). Quarterly series are constructed using the average of the monthly observations. Consumer mortgages (v122748). Quarterly series are constructed using the average of the monthly observations. 21

23 Gross Domestic product (v499686). Quarterly data. Federal funds rate. Quarterly series are constructed using the average of the monthly observations. B Robustness We performed the following robustness exercises. 1. Estimate a standard VAR that does not distinguish between a monetary tightening initiated by the FED and the bank of Canada. 2. Report the results to a single output shock. 3. Add the exchange rate to the VAR. 4. Add U.S. GDP to the VAR. 5. Reestimate the results using only the more recent data. 6. Add inventories to the VAR and consider a in which output and inventory shocks are such that the implied response for output and the implied response for inventories is identical to the one observed during a. The data sources for the additional data are the following. Inventories (v ), Statistics Canada. using the quarterly change series. Quarterly level series are constructed Exchange rate, FRED. Quarterly series are constructed using the average of the monthly observations. U.S. GDP, FRED. Quarterly data. 22

24 Results using a standard VAR. Figure A.1 plots the results when we use a standard VAR in which we do not include the federal funds rate. In this speci cation, an innovation in the bank rate captures both a response to a change in the federal funds rate as well as an independent tightening by the Bank of Canada. The results are similar to those reported in the main text for a tightening initiated by the FED. But quantitatively they are actually somewhat smaller, that is, they are best described as an average of the downturns initiated by the FED and the Bank of Canada. The only thing that is somewhat di erent is that during a consumer mortgages actually display a signi cant increase. This is also found by Den Haan, Sumner, and Yamashiro (2007) and only increases the gap between the response during a monetary and a. Responses following a single output shock. As discussed in Section 3.4, the responses of variables during a are the responses to a series of output shocks (this made it possible to get an identical output response during the two di erent downturns). The responses of the variables during a are, however, qualitatively very similar to the responses to a single output shock. This is documented in Figure A.2, which plots the responses of output and the loan components following a one-time negative output shock. First, note that following an output shock the initial output response is larger than the one constructed for the in Figure A.1, but the dynamic path is not that di erent. It still has a slight hump shape, and after roughly three years it has returned back to its original level. As was observed during a, non-mortgage consumer loans decline and consumer mortgages increase. Business loans also move in the same direction as observed during a, except that in response to a single output shock business mortgages initially display an (insigni cant) increase. Adding the exchange rate. when we add the exchange rate to the VAR. As documented in Figure A.3 the results are very similar 23

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